UEFA Euro 96
England '96 |
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| Tournament details |
| Host country |
 England |
| Dates |
8 June – 30 June |
| Teams |
16 |
| Venue(s) |
8 (in 8 host cities) |
| Final positions |
Champions  |
 Germany (3rd title) |
Runners-up  |
 Czech Republic |
| Tournament statistics |
| Matches played |
31 |
| Goals scored |
64 (2.06 per match) |
| Attendance |
1,276,137 (41,166 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
Alan Shearer (5 goals) |
| Best player |
Matthias Sammer[1] |
The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 96) was hosted by England. It was the tenth European Football Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA, and the first to use the "Euro" name. The tournament's final stages took place between 8 June and 30 June 1996. The slogan of the tournament was "Football Comes Home", as it was the first time the tournament had taken place in England, where the rules of the game were first standardised. English football and popular culture has since referenced the competition fondly even though the home team did not reach the final.
Fifteen teams had to go through a qualifying round to reach the final stage. England qualified automatically as hosts of the event. This was the first European Championship to introduce the current format of 16 countries competing in the final tournament. UEFA had made the decision to expand the tournament as in the late 1980s and early 1990s it was far easier for European nations to qualify for the World Cup than their own continental championship; 14 of the 24 teams at the 1982, 1986 and 1990 World Cups had been European, whereas the European Championship finals still involved only eight teams. Since the Taylor Report, England now boasted enough all-seater stadia of sufficient capacity to hold an expanded tournament.
The qualifying round was played throughout 1994 and 1995. There were eight qualifying groups of six teams each, with the exception of group 3, which only had five. The matches were played in a home-and-away basis.
The winner and the runner-up of each group qualified automatically, with the exception of the two worst runners-up. These two teams had to play an additional playoff between them (single match in neutral ground), to determine the 16th team to join all others in the final tournament. This was between Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands at Anfield Stadium, Liverpool which the Dutch won 2-0.
The first round group stage went mainly as most observers would have expected, with almost all the major teams qualifying for the quarter-finals. The only exceptions to this were the failures of Italy (from the "Group of Death" which also had Germany and the Czech Republic in it) and defending champions Denmark. The hosts England, after a draw against Switzerland, defeated arch rivals Scotland and then defeated the Netherlands 4-1 to qualify.
However, the knock-out stages were marked for their generally uninspiring play. Only 9 goals were scored in the 7 matches, with four of the games decided by penalty shoot-outs (three of them without goals). The semi-final between England and Germany ultimately ended in disappointment for the home side, as Germany beat England on penalties.
The final of the tournament was between Germany and the surprise of the tournament – the Czech Republic. In the end, it was a triumph for German striker Oliver Bierhoff, who scored Germany's equaliser in the 2nd half after Patrik Berger's penalty had given the Czechs the lead. As the game went into extra time, it was Bierhoff who scored the Golden Goal (after a mistake from the Czech goalkeeper, and the first Golden Goal in the history of international football) to give Germany another major tournament success.
Although not all the games were sold out, the tournament had the highest aggregate attendance in championship history (1,276,000) and the highest average per game of 41,158 for the revised 16 team format with 31 games. Only Germany had had a higher average attendance in championship history with an average of 56,656 in 1988 but only staged 15 games in an 8 team championship.
Qualification
UEFA Euro 1996 finalists.
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The following teams participated in the final tournament:
* Since the break-up of Czechoslovakia. ** Since the break-up of the USSR.
Venues
Match officials
 Austria
 Belgium
 Belarus
 Bulgaria
- Czech Republic
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 Denmark
- England
 France
- Germany
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 Hungary
 Italy
 Netherlands
 Russia
 Scotland
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 Spain
 Sweden
 Switzerland
 Turkey
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Squads
For a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see 1996 UEFA European Football Championship squads.
Results
First round
Note: All times local (BST/UTC+1).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stages
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